Projects | Francisco Cruz - Social Psychology

Lay Beliefs about Science

Wed, 27 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This research interest revolves around why people believe that some psychological phenomena are more explainable than others. Furthermore, we address the nature of these beliefs, as well as their malleability, namely under contexts in which people are motivated to reach a desired conclusion or after exposure to formal scientific training opportunities. This project seeks to inform policies, by designing interventions dedicated to dismantling scepticism towards (psychological) science.

Word and Face Processing

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

My research interest here lies in the underlying mechanisms - such as holistic processing of visual stimuli - enabling fast and accurate identification of frequently-exposed-to objects, namely words and faces. Moreover, I also explore the how’s and why’s behind the cross-race effect - the tendency for people to more accurately recall faces belonging to their ethnicity (vs. faces from other ethnicities).

Temporal Outgroups

Sat, 27 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Thinking of one’s social groups in the past (e.g., our compatriots in 1922) changes the way we perceive them as a social category, namely by leading us to believe that the group members are more similar to one another than its present members are. In this project, we address the potentially relevant psychological mechanisms promoting differential beliefs about the homogeneity of closely related social groups.